Logic Program Synthesis from Examples

Inductive inference is not so common in automatic programming. We first define, in Section 3.1, the underlying specification formalism, namely examples. In Section 3.2, we present the major results about inductive inference. Then, in Section 3.3 and Section 3.4, we survey the synthesis of functional programs from examples, and the synthesis of logic programs from examples, respectively. Finally, in Section 3.5, we draw some conclusions on the use of inductive inference in automatic programming. 

The next two sections survey the synthesis of functional programs from examples, and the synthesis of logic programs from examples, respectively. 

Algorithm 3-1 Incremental synthesis of logic programs from examples. 

A few researchers have tackled this lack of discipline in the synthesis of recursive logic programs from examples for instance, [Tinkham 90] and [Sterling and Kirschenbaum 93] investigate the use of schemas to guide synthesis. Curiously, the now virtually defunct research on trace-based synthesis of functional programs from examples [Summers 77] [Biermann 78] did not suffer from such a marked lack of discipline , even though this research preceded ILP research. 

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